Come Undone
Cityscape Affair, Book One
Olivia Germaine has already found love. Devoted wife, loyal friend, determined career woman—she has the life she always envisioned…until the moment she locks eyes with a handsome stranger across a crowded room.
David Dylan—alleged playboy and Chicago’s most eligible bachelor—awakens a passion in Olivia she buried long ago. He challenges her to confront the perfect life she’s built and to ask herself questions that could lead to either happiness…or regret.
Because David knows who she is. He knows what she wants. And he can give it to her. If only she’ll give in…
1
Sophistication perfumed the lobby of the downtown performance art center as if it’d been bottled and sold to Chicago’s elite. It clung to red velvet drapes with gold tassels and spiraled up to where I waited on marble steps.
A pair of large male hands slipped my coat from my shoulders. “Does your husband know you’re here alone?”
I nearly shivered despite the warm breath on my skin. “Ask him yourself. He’ll be here any moment.”
“Then I’d better make this quick.” I heard the smile in his voice as his tone lightened. “Is this a new dress?”
“I’ve worn it before,” I said, glancing back at my husband. “Dinner with your sister.”
“The green suits you.”
“Your favorite color.”
He pecked me quickly on the mouth. “Because it matches your eyes.”
Having come straight from his office, the day wore on him. The sagging knot of his tie and dark circles under his eyes were evidence of many consecutive late nights at the office. But Bill’s smile never failed to comfort me with its familiarity. “How was work?” I asked.
“The usual.”
“Did you defend any criminals?”
“They’re not criminals,” he said, draping my coat over his elbow. “They’re people accused of committing crimes.”
“Spoken like a true lawyer.” I tucked my hair behind my ear. “You’re fitting in more at that firm every week.”
An early-evening spring breeze passed over us as more people shuffled in the theater doors. Smartly dressed women carefully stepped down scarlet-carpeted steps, passing beneath elaborate chandeliers that cast shadowy corners.
I scanned the room for our friends as Bill slipped an arm around my waist, pulling my back to his front. “We can still skip out before anyone notices.”
“That wouldn’t be fair to Lucy,” I said. “She and Andrew are expecting us.”
“I’m sure they’d understand.”
Of course they would. My best friend’s sweet-as-sugar personality didn’t lend itself to guilt trips—and she might’ve found the one man on the planet more amiable than her. Still, Bill and I needed this. Aside from a client dinner last week and a charity function hosted by one of Bill’s bosses, we’d each been spending more time at our respective offices than with each other.
“It’s good for us to be social,” I said.
Bill slid his hand up my hip, over my dress, to the elastic of my tights. “We could always be social with each other.”
We hadn’t had sex in weeks. Why was he suddenly friskynow, at the most inopportune time, while friends waited on us? The answer was obvious—to get out of sitting through the ballet tonight.
Fortunately, I had a topic on hand equivalent todown, boy.
“I talked to my dad today,” I said. “He’ll be in Chicago for a night next month and wants to have dinner.”
Bill released me with a groan. “Great.”
